Parents file suit over STAAR tests

They want state to toss out scores

STAAR testing has sparked controversy since its inception. This year is also inspires dread among students, teachers and parents alike.

Photo: Times Union /Times Union

AUSTIN — The Texas Education Agency and the STAAR tests are under fire again, this time by a group of parents suing the department for allegedly ignoring state law in administering this year’s end-of-year exams.

Four parents argue the education agency knowingly disregarded legislative directives requiring the tests known as STAAR, the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness, be redesigned so the vast majority of students in grades 3-8 could finish the tests in two to three hours, depending on their grade level.

The plaintiffs argue the state never changed the tests after the governor signed the new rules into law in 2015, giving students illegal exams this year that will be used to decide this summer whether they advance to the next grade or attend summer school.

“The TEA had a clear choice. They could spend nine months designing an assessment that complied or they could put their heads in the sand and hope that nobody noticed,” said Scott Placek, lead counsel on the lawsuit. “Well, the parents noticed.”

The plaintiffs are seeking an injunction requiring the state to discard the test scores. They also are seeking up to $100,000 in monetary relief.

A spokeswoman for the TEA declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Students were given four hours to complete individual exams, said Debbie Ratcliffe, director of media relations for the agency. TEA still is collecting data to determine how long students took to complete the exams, which were taken as recently as May 12, she said. She did not know when the results of that data would be finalized.

As the country moves to increasing accountability in public schools, parents here and elsewhere are pushing back against standardized testing.

They argue so-called “high stakes” exams cause undue stress on children and take attention away from arts education. The results of tests are used to calculate student proficiency and determine whether students can advance to the next grade level. Exam results also factor into the evaluations of teachers, principals, schools and districts.

Parents frustrated with the system moved lawmakers to reduce the number of tests students are required to take to five from 15 at the high school level in 2013. Since then, many have kept the pressure on for more changes, including pushing for the 2015 passage of HB 743, meant to reduce the amount of time younger students spend on testing.

The movement has led Ben Becker, a parent of three young children, to organize and raise more than $20,000 to fund the legal effort to fight the TEA and standardized testing, although only one of his children is old enough to attend the Houston Independent School District. He is not a plaintiff in the suit.

“The TEA has shown they’re not interested in complying with the law,” Becker said.

According to state law, 85 percent of students in third through fifth grades are required to have finished an individual STAAR test within two hours. Sixth- through eighth-graders are expected to finish their exam in three hours.

“Not once did they say they needed a transition year,” Placek said. “It never should have gotten to this point.”

Parents suing the state include a Houston mother, Claudia de Leon, parent of a third-grader and a fifth-grader at Helms Elementary School, which the state has designated as in need of improvement.

De Leon, a product of the Houston Independent School District, opted to take her oldest son out of standardized tests for the last three years, and is now pulling her third-grade daughter out of testing, too.

“Failing and making mistakes is part of learning and part of education and should not be used to punish. As long as that is happening, I will hold my children out of testing,” she said.

Other plaintiffs include middle-school parents from Corinth, Orange and Wimberly.

The suit is the latest bruise on the embattled STAAR test. A clunky rollout this spring culminated in computer systems deleting answers on more than 14,000 tests. Education Commissioner Mike Morath said students negatively affected by the technology glitches will not have their test scores held against them.